Amores Perros

"Love. Betrayal. Death."

2000 2h 34m ES

🙌

7.6

BANGER

★7.6TMDB · 3,026

DramaThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man.

“Love. Betrayal. Death.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Emilio Echevarría
El Chivo
Gael García Bernal
Octavio
Goya Toledo
Valeria
Álvaro Guerrero
Daniel
Vanessa Bauche
Susana
Jorge Salinas
Luis
Marco Pérez
Ramiro
Rodrigo Murray
Gustavo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Writers: Guillermo Arriaga
Languages: Spanish
Countries: Mexico

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $21M — a 10.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, shot by Rodrigo Prieto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gustavo Santaolalla. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Luis Carballar shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Emilio Echevarría and Gael García Bernal and Goya Toledo carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alejandro G. Iñárritu directs. Rodrigo Prieto behind the camera. Gustavo Santaolalla scores. Luis Carballar cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Mexico. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Grossed $21M — a 10.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
426 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
5Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, shot by Rodrigo Prieto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Gustavo Santaolalla. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Luis Carballar shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Emilio Echevarría and Gael García Bernal and Goya Toledo carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Love. Betrayal. Death.".
10IMDB entry: tt0245712 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 11 themes, including "daughter", "secret love", "homeless person", "mexico city, mexico".
12Released under 29 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Original score: Gustavo Santaolalla
Editing: Luis Carballar
Production design: Brigitte Broch
Costume design: Gabriela Diaque
Makeup / hair: Marco Antonio Rosado
Runtime: 154 min · 2h 34m
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Box office: $20,908,467
Return: 1045% of budget
Original language: ES
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Amores Perros (2000)

Awards

BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
Ariel Award for Best Picture
London Film Critics Circle Award for Director of the Year
National Board of Review Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-01-05
★ 7/10
There are three stories here, all interlinked - but only at the start and only tangentially at that, that ask questions of humanity and loyalty amidst the sometimes quite brutal, lustful and occasionally humorous environments of a Mexico City inhabited by rich and poor alike. The opener follows the life of “Octavio” (Gael García Bernal) who lives with his mother, brother and his wife “Susana” (Vanessa Bauche) - for whom he has the hots! He hasn’t much money but that changes when his formidable dog proves to be more than a match for the local champion and so starts to earn his keep in a graphically gruesome fashion. This narks “Salgado” (Ricardo Dalmacci) to the point that an altercation causes a road accident that connects with the second, and frankly less interesting story. That features the poster-girl “Valeria” (Goya Toledo) who has just moved into a grand apartment with boyfriend “Daniel” (Álvaro Guerrero) and her annoyingly yapping dog. Not long after they have moved in, the mutt manages to get itself stuck under the floorboards and they can’t find it. With her still dealing with the consequences of our original introduction, tempers start to flare, blood pressures to rise and who knows what will happen in their hitherto Elysian world? Finally, we meet up with the itinerant “El Chivo” (Emilio Echevarria) whom we have already learned is handy with a pistol - especially if he is paid! Ostensibly, though, he’s a simple machete-wielding dog lover without ten Pesos to rub together. His is the least melodramatic of the triptych as it turns out that he has quite a rum and milk-fuelled malevolent streak that comes to an head when a Cain and Abel scenario puts just about everything else into perspective. This isn’t a film for a sensitive animal lover, but if you can get past that then we have a really dark, gritty and characterful analysis of a society polarised not just between rich and poor - neither necessarily any happier than the other - but also between men and women, young and old. Garcia turns in a solid effort, though I did find his character rather fizzled out a bit, and both Toledo and Echevarria have plenty to work with as their stories gather pace. At the end of each episode, we are left in no doubt that mankind can be remarkably adept at self-destruction, pettiness and greed but there is also room for affection, grief and humanity too - it’s just this latter element that is disappointingly thin on the ground. It’s uncomfortable to watch, but well worth it if you can see it in the cinema.

Production companies